How Can I Cover My Windows Cheaply

Defunction tin go very, very wrong. If you go overboard, you lot end up with something heavy and expensive and claustrophobic, like i of those getups Sally Field wore in Lincoln. On the other hand, don't ignore them until besides late, after all the remodel coin has been spent. Similar I did. With my husband threatening to thumbtack a bed sheet over the cute new windows "to terminate the spying," I faced a desperate state of affairs.

"Let's review," said my husband, who likes his privacy. "How exactly did we stop up adding only two new rooms simply 21 new windows?"

Um, the builder likes "light?" At least that's what he said when he showed me the plans. It looked similar a good idea on newspaper, also. All that lite. Of course, at present that we've moved in we practically have to walk effectually in sunglasses. So what's the solution (and how much did I terminate up spending)?

Photographs past Mimi Giboin.

Strategy No. 1: Don't panic. Instead, walk from room to room and evaluate each window calmly. As Brooklyn-based architect Frederick Tang puts it, "What do yous need from each of your windows? Is this a room where you want to sleep in utter pitch darkness? Or practise yous alive somewhere where the site has privacy and your amazing views are the thing you are concerned about?"

Strategy No. 2: Hang uncomplicated solid-color curtain panels.

Why choose curtains (instead of blinds, say, or shades) for some windows? Says Tang, "It is a classic play a trick on to use defunction to enlarge the visual effect of window. Ofttimes people will place them bunched up a human foot or two off to the side of window, so will look as if a window is bigger."

To get the nigh visual bear on, "curtains look nicest when they go from the floor all the way to the ceiling, even if the window is not full height," says Tang.

Strategy No. 3: Sew your own. In my both my living room and guest sleeping room (above), twin panels frame the casement windows. These were pretty much the easiest sewing project evers. My friend Stephanie, who is an excellent seamstress as well equally being an interior designer, drew me a pattern on the back of an envelope. All I had to practice was cut long lengths of material, run up lining onto them, press, and hem.

The bespeak of these curtains was to absorb sounds and to add a layer of texture to the rooms. In the living room privacy wasn't a concern even for my hubby–information technology'due south a living room, after all–so instead of using a zillion yards of fabric, I made ii 56-inch-wide panels. I never "close" them, and if I did, they wouldn't entirely cover the windows. In all, I used six yards of Foam Linen Fabric ($14.99 a one thousand from Ballard Designs).

To add together weight and body to the curtains, I lined each panel with cotton Roc-Lon White mantle lining ($4.xix a thousand from Jo-ann Fabrics).

Toll of the living room curtains: $125.

Above: No need to sew a rod pocket. I attached clips to the top of each panel.

Cost of the living room curtain hardware: one Cambria Oil Rubbed Bronze Drapery Rod ($49.99) and four packages of Cambria Oil Rubbed Statuary Defunction Rings (currently on sale for $4.99 per package) at Bed Bath and Beyond, $90.

Strategy No. 4: Use the money you saved in other rooms to splurge on custom shades or blinds for the bedroom.

In the bedroom you don't want to skimp. Yous spend at least one-third of your life in this room, and so you desire good coverage: for privacy and to block the sunlight on Saturday morn when your husband takes the dogs out and lets yous sleep in.

In my bedroom (in a higher place) are custom Roman Shades from The Shade Store. You lot tin save money here by measuring your windows yourself and installing your own shades after they arrive (they're shipped in long cardboard boxes to your business firm).

The big question is ever whether to hang shades (and blinds) on the exterior of the window jamb or to recess them. Says Tang: "If the window jamb is deep plenty, it's overnice to hang them within because it gives more than of a custom look. It's more than tailored and looks a little more finished."

For the recessed pick, you demand to cutting the blind or shade precisely– within a quarter of an inch of the width of the window.

Total price of seven lined sleeping room shades: $2,826.

Strategy No. 5: Some windows may non need annihilation. At my house, I identified x windows–in the kitchen and adjoining family room–that could remain bare. The view was nice, there was no need for privacy, and information technology was a cleaner look.

The flim-flam to leaving windows bare, says Tang, is to be uniform. In a room, if you exit 1 window uncovered, you also should leave all the other windows uncovered because "yous don't want ane to look like an orphan."

Another way to accomplish an uncovered wait is to recall ahead–far, far ahead–and to include in the remodel design recessed pall tracks or pockets for shades. "Y'all tin can build a pocket on a window, where essentially the trim higher up the window falls a little lower to hibernate the shade that's behind it," says Tang. Here's an case of the finished expect, from one of his projects with a former house.

Total price: $0. (I know that'south self-axiomatic, only the figure made me so happy I couldn't resist typing it.)

Strategy No. 6: Inexpensive cut-to-order wooden or bamboo shades. In my dwelling role (above), late afternoon sunday is a problem. information technology causes a glare on the estimator screen. Photograph past Michelle Slatalla.

"Windows that are south-facing need more attending than windows that are north-facing, because of sun," says Tang. "For situations like that, I like very simple shades. Information technology's amazing how many customized options there are that give yous a lot of bang for your cadet."

Tang, who lives in a pre-war building in Brooklyn, covered his own windows with custom cut shades from Home Depot. "They take a valence; I live in a very traditional firm where that sort of particular is appropriate to the architecture."

My inside mount bamboo shades (above) came from Payless Decor, which offers a broad selection at budget-friendly prices. After I measured the windows and placed the guild online, the shades and hardware necessary for installation arrived on the doorstep about three weeks later. They were easy to hang and fit perfectly.

Total cost of six Payless Decor bamboo shades (22.5 inches wide past 53 inches loftier): $193.81.

Grand total: $three,500.

And the windows expect so much nicer than if they were covered with bed sheets.

For more of Michelle's amateur adventures in dwelling design, see The Death of the Shower Curtain and My Worst Design Decision Ever.

N.B.: This is an update of a post published February 18, 2013 during our Moving picture Fest calendar week.

Source: https://www.gardenista.com/posts/5-strategies-for-covering-50-windows-for-under-a-million-dollars/

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